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SPEECH 



OP 



HON. JOHN M. CLAYTON, 



OF DELAWARE. 



OK 



AFFAIRS IN KANSAS TERMTOEY. 



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DELIVERED 



1 



y>'\. 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, JUNE 16, 1856. 



WASHINGTON: 
PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 
' 1856. 



F66 



KANSAS AFFAIES. 



Mr. CLAYTON. Mr. President, it will prob- 
ably be remembered by every member of this 
body that I have carefully abstained, during the 
whole of the present session of Congress, from 
uttering one word in relation to the slavery ques- 
tion or the distressing occurrences in Kansas. I 
have cautiously abstained from debate on these 
subjects, because I have been anxious to give 
offense neither to northern or southern men; but 
to conciliate them all, in order that I might, on 
some occasion most suitable in my own judg- 
ment, during some pause in the stormy contro- 
versy agitating the country, propose some m.eas- 
ure of conciliation, of justice, and of peace. I 
come here to-day, sir, for the purpose of making 
such a proposition, in the sincerity of an honest 
heart, desiring to advance the interests of no mere 
party, or to give preference to any one section of 
the Union to another. I now present myself to 
you. Senators, not as a partisan of any candidate 
for the Presidency of the United States, or of any 
faction or political organization. Released, after 
a long public life, from all party ties, I am like 
the sailor who, when separated from his com- 
rades after a long cruise, said he was hereafter 
" going in a gang by himself." 

I present myself in that position before you this 
day, sir, and I ask honorable Senators here to 
remember, when 1 make these declarations, that I 
also present myself as a representative of the 
most unpretending of all the States of this Union 
— that State which occupies the middle ground 
between the northern and southern sections of 
this Confederacy — a State, it is true, which is a 
slaveholding State, but yet a fair type of the 
whole Union, exhibiting within itself all the 
shades of opinion on the subject of slavery which 
distinguish the different portions of the United 
States. The northern county of that State, one 
of the most beautiful, agricultural districts in this 
country, at this moment containing more than 
fifty thousand people, has scarcely one hundred 
slaves within its limits. The southern, which is 
my own native county, is perhaps as strongly 
pro-slavery in its opinions as any other section 



of this Union. The middle county is strongly 
conservative on this subject, without any very 
strong tendencies in favor of either geographical 
division of the State in preference to the other. 
The whole people are as deeply interested to pre- 
serve this Union, as solicitous to prevent any 
rupture between the other parts of this Union, as 
it is possible for any men to be. They are the 
descendants and representatives of the men who 
poured out their blood like water on the battle- 
fields of the Revolution, and left hundreds of their 
best and bravest on the plains of South Carolina. 
An honorable Senator, in addressing the Senate on 
a former occasion, referred to the return of Gen- 
eral Knox, stating the relative proportion whicii 
each State of this Union contributed to the com- 
mon defense against British troops during the 
Revolution, and showing that this State furnished 
more fighting men to the army of the Revolution, 
in proportion to population, than any other State 
in this Union. 

We are on the south as well as on the north 
side of Mason and Dixon's line — for, in truth, 
Mason and Dixon ran the southern as well as 
the northern boundary of the State. If I can 
faithfully represent the wishes and feelings of her 
patriotic people on this occasion, I ought to com- 
mand the confidence as well as the respect of the 
representatives of the other States for any meas- 
ure of peace I can propose. Let me say, too, 
that my political life will terminate with my 
present term of service in this body; and that 
under no circumstances can I ever enter into com- 
petition with others for public honors or offices 
again. Destitute, therefore, of any possible mo- 
tive for injustice to my countrymen in any quar- 
ter, may I not fairly challenge their favorable 
consideration of the bill I am about to offer, when 
I declare that I am actuated by no other desire 
than to restore fraternal concord, and to perpet- 
uate the blessings flowing from our glorious 
Union ? 

In conversation among friends with whom 
thought it my duty during a protracted illness at 
this session to confer, I have constantly solicited 



them, as I now do you, Senators, to reflect on the 
moral inculcated by the statues which stand in 
beautiful relief over the tympanum on the eastern 
portico of this Capitol. There you behold the 
figures of Hope, Liberty, and Justice. Hope, 
raising her right hand, implores the genius of 
America to tell by what means the Constitution 
of the United States (which Justice holds in one 
hand while she balances her scales in the other) 
can best be preserved, and the genius points to 
Justice as her answer. Justice, sir, is the only 
means by which you can retain the people of the 
United States within the bonds of amity, and 
■when they become hateful to each other, it may 
be better that they should be separated than that 
they should hold out to each other hypocritical 
professions of a friendship which they do not 
cherish. My anxious solicitude this day is to 
make one honest, though it may be but an hum- 
ble effort for the purpose of restoring that frater- 
nal regard and affection which existed amongst 
them when I first came into public life, and which 
I pray God may continue after I shall be (as I 
must at no very distant period be) gathered to my 
fathers. There can be no such regard and affec- 
tion when there is not mutual respect; and there 
can be no sincere respect where there is not a 
cordial concession of all that justice demands of 
each party towards the other. Justice, Senators, 
is the only weapon with which I purpose to con- 
tend against the spirit of discord and disunion 
which now rages through the land, and has roused 
the passions of men till our country is Uke a 
mighty ocean when heaving to the wing of a 
tempest. 

There are now two antagonizing propositions 
before the Senatei One was offered by the dis- 
tinguished gentleman at the head of the Commit- 
tee on Territories, the honorable Senator from 
Illinois, [Mr. Douglas.] I desired to confer with 
that gentleman in reference to the course I am 
now about to take; but my own ill health, and 
his long absence from the Senate, have prevented 
me from doing so. I have, however, not failed 
to confer with other distinguished gentlemen on 
both sides of the Chamber, anxiou.sly asking their 
advice that I might make a judicious and proper 
move for the purpose of conciliating, by a strict 
adherence to the principles of justice, the oppo- 
site contending sections of this Confederation. 

In regard to the proposition offered by the hon- 
orable Senator from Illinois, or, to speak more 
properly, reported by the Committee on Territo- 
ries, suffer me to say that, after examining it with 
all the care wliich I am capable of bestowing 
upon it, I think it is liable to many and to great 
objections. 1 invite his consideration now to the 
examination of the objections which I am about 
to adduce against it. But while I say this, I must 
say to the distinguished gentleman fmm New 
York, too, [Mr. Sewaud,] that I hold his proposi- 
tion, which is to introduce Kansas into the Union 
as a Slate immediately, upon the constitution 
which she has sent here, to be still more objec- 
tionable than the bill of the distinguished gentle- 
man who has the paternity of the bill reported by 
the Committee on Territories. 

I have no evidence that a majority of the peo- 



ple of Kansas ever voted to elect the delegates 
who made that constitution. If the honorable 
Senator from New York possesses any informa- 
tion to satisfy us on that point, I should be happy 
to hear it. But I do understand — and I beg 
leave to be corrected if I am wrong — when I say, 
that those who voted for the delegates to that 
convention, were men of one faction or party in the 
Territory — called free-State men; and although 
they invited, perhaps, by the terms of their ad- 
vertisement, all to come and attend the election, 
there was not, so far as I have been able to under- 
stand, a single pro-slavery man that attended one 
of their elections. It will not be pretended, I 
apprehend, that the pro-slavery men attended the 
elections in any considerable numbers, or held 
themselves bound to attend them. 

Again, sir, I have an insuperable objection to 
the introduction of Kansas into this Union at this 
time; and I almost flatter myself I can convince 
every man here that it would be improper and 
highly inexpedient that she should be introduced 
into the Union as a sovereign State at this mo- 
mentous crisis. From the best information I can 
gain, there is probably at this time a Federal 
population within the limitsof that Territory not 
exceeding twenty thousand. I speak of the popu- 
lation, exclusive of Indians and other persons 
not taxed. It is going beyond all precedent to 
invite a Territory into the Union as a State with 
so small a population; but that is the least of the 
objections which I have to the introduction of 
such a Territory as a State. 

Mr. SEWARD. Does the Senator say there 
are but twenty thousand people there ? 

Mr. CLAYTON. I said I thought she had 
not more than twenty thousand Federal popula- 
tion. I do not doubt there is a greater popula- 
tion there, including Indians and persons not 
taxed; but allow twenty-five thousand, or even 
thirty or forty thousand, for the sake of argu- 
ment, as the number, and still the objection to 
her admission is sustained even on that state of 
the facts. Minnesota, with perhaps five times 
the population of Kansas, is still aTerritory, and 
has been such for seven years; Oregon for nearly 
ten years; and other Territories have been such 
for five or six years; yet, even now, there is no 
proposition before Congress for the admission of 
any of these Territories as States. 

But, sir, a much greater objection than that 
exists to the proposition of the distinguished 
gentleman from New York. At this moment I feel 
and know it — for I reside on the border between 
the North and the South — there exists a feeling 
in the mighty North such as never existed before 
since I have been in public life. As an honest 
man, true to the country, I am bound to say to 
you. Senators, that a feeling has been excited 
there, within a short time past, which, if suffered 
to run on without check or restraint, may be fatal 
to our liberties and our Union. 

I was not one of those who, six years ago, 
rejoiced in the name of "Union-savers." I am 
not one of those who have been subjected to the 
ridicule and criticism which some gentlemen have 
constantly bestowed on men who have endeav- 
ored to calm and pacify the passions of the peo- 



5 



pie of tlie United States. True it is, that on one 
occasion, when I was comparatively but a young 
member of the Senate, nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury ago — I did take an active part in settling the 
controversy between the United States and the 
State of South Carolina. At a moment when 
General Jackson threatened that gallant State 
with the armed forces of the country, when my 
own heart was distressed daily with the appre- 
hension that the troops of the United States 
might fire upon the people of that State, in which 
event I was unable to comprehend the extent of 
the calamity that might befall my country — at that 
moment, and even when Henry Clay himself 
(who then occupied the seat I now hold in this 
Chamber) had laid his bill of peace on the table 
— ay, sir, had abandoned it, had given up every 
hope of passing it during the session, I was the 
man, as he, years afterwards, stated on the floor 
of the Senate, who prevailed on him to renew his 
efforts, and brought to his assistance friends who 
enabled him to carry the measure triumphantly 
through the Senate. I did it then, sir, influenced 
by the same high considerations that impel me 
to act to-day. I thought when I was about it 
then, that I should lose all the little popularity I 
had among the friends of domestic industry who 
were my ft-iends, and had sent me to Congress; 
but at the hazard of that thing called popularity, 
I dared stand forth then for the purpose of paci- 
fying and conciliating the contending factions of 
this country; and, thank God, we succeeded. I 
know well enough, that the measure has been, 
since that day, condemned by men who little 
comprehend or imagine what were the dangers 
of that period. At my present period of life, I 
reck not whether the measure I propose be pop- 
ular or not; I seek only to be assured that it is 
right. 

Sir, great as were, in my judgment, the dangers 
which surrounded us in 1833, they were far less 
apparent than those which I sincerely believe 
attend the country at this crisis. I have never 
been a panic-maker upon the subjectof the Union. 
I have a great antipathy to the character of an 
alarmist. I do not now say — I will not say — that 
the causes which are in operation in this country 
will produce a dissolution of the Union. I will 
not believe that the people of this day are so lost 
to their own self-respect, so bereft of a proper 
love of country, so degenerate and degraded, so 
forgetful of every generous, ennobling, an# hon- 
orable sentiment, as to sacrifice this Union for 
any cause of controversy now existing between 
the North and South. But, sir, I have been ad- 
monished by the Father of his Country to frown 
on the first dawning of an attempt to alienate 
one section of this Union from another; and I 
will not only frown on it, but, when I witness the 
first dawning of such an attempt, 1 will never 
fail to sound the alarm to the country as a faith- 
ful sentinel, while standing here and commis- 
sioned to act for them on these the very ram- 
parts of freedom. In that spirit, sir, I say now 
is the time for every man who feels for his coun- 
try, and loves it sincerely, to attempt something 
to rescue that country from the discord which 
rages in the different parts of it, with a fury 



which is daily increasing, and which seems to 
know no intermission and no limits. 

If, in the present condition of the public mind, 
we could bring Kansas into the Union to-morrow, 
I would not do it. I believe, if we were to admit 
it either as a slave State or a free State, it would 
create such a sensation among the different sec- 
tions of this country as was never known before. 
I am not willing to subject the Union of the States 
to such an experiment as that. It would shake 
the Government to its very center. No, sir, I 
would rely on the healing influence of time. I 
design to give the country the benefit of the whole 
chapter of accidents during the territorial exist- 
ence of Kansas. I have confidence that the kind 
Providence which has guided us in safety so 
long, will still protect and save us if we attempt 
nothing rashly. I believe that, if Kansas can be 
suffered to remain in a territorial condition, until 
the Congress shall think it safe and proper, after 
years to come, to introduce her into the Union, 
the conservative elements which ultimately pre- 
vail everywhere among our countrymen, and the 
honest love of the Union which pervad§s every 
true American heart, will go with the settlers to 
Kansas, and there finally and properly settle thia 
question on the only true principle — the great prin- 
ciple of self-government. This is the principle 
asserted by the Declaration of Independence. 
The adjustment of a similar controversy on this 
principle, was recommended to Congress by Pres- 
ident Polk, in the last and best message he ever 
sent to Congress. It is the same principle which 
was relied upon by President Taylor in the mes- 
sages he sent to Congress relating to the Govern- 
ment of California and New Mexico. This was 
the principle relied upon by the distinguished men 
who made the settlement of 1850. This is the 
principle which meets my whole heart's approval. 
I wish Kansas to come into the Union as the set- 
tlers there shall determine, when there shall be 
enough of them to assume the responsibilities 
and discharge the obligations of one of the proud 
sovereign States of this Union, whether with 
slavery or without it. I wish them, then, to settle 
all their domestic institutions to suit themselves, 
uncontrolled by the Congress of the United States, 
or any power on earth but their own sovereign 
will. 

Sir, I do not mean to go into the discussion of 
that question which I have thus incidentally 
touched. My object this day in so far avowing 
my own principles, is not to provoke debate or to 
excite discord among the members of the Senate; 
it is not to provoke any man to dispute with me 
on points such as I have mentioned. I only wish 
my own position to be clearly understood, and 
therefore I say again, that if I could bring Kansas 
into the Union this day either as a- slave or a free 
State, according to my own will and pleasure, I 
would not agree to do it. The shock that would 
be felt by that section of the Union which would 
be disappointed in the expectation of attaining its 
own particular end there, would be such, I repeat 
again, as to convulse the whole country, and per- 
haps bury the Constitution in its ruirfs. Then 
let the subject for the present rest; sufiicient for 
the day is the evil thereof. Postpone the crisis. 



6 



I.eave us, as I have said, to the healing influence 
of time. Let us trust in the patriotism of the 
men who will go to Kansas, and whose right and 
duty it will be to decide this question as best suits 
their own domestic interests and feelings, and all 
■will be safe. Adopt this policy, and rely upon it 
the country will pass through the crisis without 
the slightest danger of disunion, and without any 
distressing discord between tiie geographical sec- 
tions of the nation. 

To this extent then I concur with the distin- 
guished Senator from Illinois and the Committee 
on Territories. But they will pardon me now 
for calling attention to what I think is an error 
rn their bill. In the first place, it proposes that 
when the convention shall be elected, which is to 
make the constitution of the State of Kansas, it 
shall be composed of delegates double the num- 
ber of the legislative representation in each elect- 
ive district. It cannot escape the attention of a 
gentleman so astute as the honorable Senator from 
Illinois, that by the time his bill goes into opera- 
tion, that is, when the election of the delegates to 
form th» State constitution shall be held, many 
of the districts of that Territory about to be con- 
verted into a State will contain a population double 
or perhaps ten times the number of those con- 
tained within the same limits, at the time of the 
first election of the Kansas Legislature. Such, I 
am assured, is the difference of population in 
some of the districts now. Within some of the 
election districts the population has fallen off; in 
others, as might rationally be expected, it has 
vastly increased. The honorable Senator from 
Illinois, I think, will agree with me in the justice 
of an apportionment of the representation accord- 
ing to the population. 

Mr. DOUGLAS. The bill certainly was in- 
tended to read — and I think the Senator will be 
satisfied, when he examines it, that it does pro- 
vide — that the ratio at the time when the conven- 
tion is held is to prevail, and not the ratio now 
existing; and, consequently, that objection is 
avoided. If the bill read as the Senator sup- 
posed, I should agree with him that it would be 
very unjust. 

Mr. CLAYTON. I do not doubt that the 
honorable Senator is right in regard to the inten- 
tion of the committee; but I think, when he 
comes to examine it, he will see that no provision 
is made in the bill for the changes in the popu- 
lation of the districts. 

Mr. DOUGLAS. It can be corrected, if it be 
found so. 

Mr. CLAYTON. Certainly. We both have 
the same object in view in this respect. But there 
is another objection which I make to a part of 
his bill, and to which I desire to call his attention. 
He wishes to make ninety-three thousand four 
hundred and twenty — the ratio or constituency 
required for a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives — the population requisite for bringing 
the State into the Union. He meant, I tlnnk, 
Federal population; he has not so expressed it, 
but I think he meant that. 

Mr. DOUGLAS. Yes, sir. 

Mr. CLAYTON. There is an error, then, 
which can be corrected by the insertion of a few 



words. My object in directing the Senator's 
attention to these things has been to ascertain his 
meaning in these particulars. I have another, and 
still greater objection, to the bill of the Committee 
on Territories; and I wish now to state it. 

During the period, certainly of several years, 
before Kansas can bi'conie a State under the pro- 
visions of this bill, the same conditio)i of thmgs 
which exists there now must abide and continue. 

The bill proposes no immediate remedy, nor 
any remedy whatever, for existing evils, until 
Kansas shall become a State. Now, let us see 
what is the condition of Kansas at this time. I 
should regret to make any statement of the alarm- 
ing state of things in that Territory not fully 
warranted by the facts. I heard the debate, the 
other day, on the proposition of my distinguished 
and able friend from Kentucky, [Mr. Chitten- 
den,] who offered a resolution here to ask the 
President to send General Scott to the Territory, 
for the purpose of pacification — a proposition not 
deemed by some others of very great importance, 
but which indicated the honest, patriotic purposes 
of his own generous and noble heart. 

When that resolution was under considera- 
tion we were told by honorable gentlemen on the 
other side of the Chamber, that there was great 
exaggeration in regard to the condition of things 
in Kansas. My honorable friend from Kentucky 
acknowledged that; 1 thought so myself; but yet 
there is much that is alarming to the mind of every 
patriot, in the real condition of that Territory; 
there is enough to make the heart of a true, pa- 
triotic American statesman bleed, in the accounts 
which are received here from that distant portion 
of our country every day, and by every mail. 1 
cut this morning from the Union newspaper, 
published in this city, the following paragraph: 

Latest from Kansas. — We received the following tele- 
graphic dispatch from a gentleman whose statements are 
entitled to the confidence of our readers : 

" Cincinnati, June 11. — Left Kansas on the 8th. Con- 
tinued fighting, and the e.vcitemont increasing. Ahout forty 
men had been killed. Colonel Sumner, witli si.\ companies 
of United Slates soldiers, was out trying to disperse and 
disarm both parties. An unsuccessful attempt had been 
made to rescue Robinson. Met a large number of United 
States troops near the line on Sunday." 

Forty men killed — ay, forty American citizens 
killed by fratricidal hands ! Is not this enough to 
shock the feelings of every man in Congress, and 
every lover of his country everywhere ? Gracious 
Hea\^n ! Less than half that number of men 
were slain at Lexington or Concord, and yet the 
intelligence of a slaughter, so much smaller in 
point of numbers than this, roused every heart 
from one extremity of the continent to the other. 
Shall we sit by, in perfect indifference, when 
forty of our citizens have been slain, and we are 
told the excitement is continually increasing.' 
Since this intelligence arrived, I have read of cities 
and towns sacked and plundered; I have read of 
horrible robberies and murders. Whether all 
these accounts are true or not, I do not pretend 
to say; but from this authentic statement pub- 
lished ii> the Union— and I do not believe that 
Judge Nicholson would have published such a 
thing as that unless he firmly believed it on good 
authority — I say, sir, with such a statement as 



that before me, I am prepared to accredit other 
statements that men from the North and the South 
have met in embattled array by hundreds, and 
slain each other, as if, instead of being citizens of 
a common country, they had been the hostile 
legions of nations at war, and foes from their very 
childhood. Who can contemplate such a picture 
as that without horror ? 

What are the real causes of this state of things 
in the Territory and in the whole country? Be 
they what they may, the bill of the Committee 
on Territories makes no provision to remove them. 

I have often said, and say ^gain, in regard to 
the people of this great nation, after studying 
their character for forty years, that the only mode 
of preserving the Union is by according perfect 
justice to all sections. Force can never avail 
when either of these sections shall resolve to 
separate. It is a fatal mistake, too, to suppose 
that men in one section will bear more than they 
"will in the other. When contending about sec- 
tional controversies, each of them is often too 
much actuated by the instincts of Hotspur, who, 
though he would give "thrice so much to any 
well-deserving friend, yet, in the way of bargain, 
would cavil on the ninth part of a hair." Rouse 
their passions by making the men of either the 
North or the South believe that intentional in- 
justice is committed against them, or that insult or 
disrespect is meant to them, and they will fight 
while there is a man left standing upon'the field. 
These men are of a race the most martial that ever 
existed upon the face of the globe. Let no man 
believe that threats of any description, or even 
armed troops, will succeed in driving either north- 
ern or southern men back when they are thor- 
oughly convinced that a due sense of justice to 
themselves, and of self-respect, commands them 
to go on. 

Among the leading causes of disaffection in 
the North are the laws of Kansas. I desire to 
point out those laws in existence in this Territory 
that are palpably unjust, oppressive, and some 
of them unconstitutional — laws which I submit 
to the Senate it is the duty of Congress to repeal. 
First among these, I designate the law of that 
Territory which I hold in my hand, which pro- 
claims that no man shall hold office or vote in that 
Territory unless he will swear to support the 
fugitive slave law. It is in these words: 

"Sec. 11. Every free white male citizen of the United 
States, and every free white male Indian who is made a cit- 
izen by treaty or otherwise, and over the age of twenty-one 
years, wlio shall be an inhabit.int of this Territory, and of 
the county or district in which he offers to vote, and shall 
have paid a territorial tax, shall be a qualified elector for 
all elective offices ; and all Indians who are inhabitants of 
this Territory, and who may liave adopted the customs of 
the white man, and who are liable to pay taxes, shall be 
deemed citizens: Provided, That no soldier, seaman, or 
marine, in the regular Army or Navy of the United States, 
shall be entitled to vote by reason of being in service therein : 
^nd provided further, That no person wlio shall have been 
convicted of any violation of any provision of an act of 
Congress entitled 'An act respecting fugitives from justice 
and persons escaping from the service of their masters,' 
approved February 12, 1793 ; or of an act to amend and sup- 
plementary to said act, approved 18th of September, 1850, 
whether such conviction were by criminal proceeding or 
by civil action for the recovery of any penalty prescribed by 
either of said acts, in any courts of the United States, or of 
any State or Territory, of any offense deemed infamous, 



shall be entitled to vote at any election, orto holdany office 
in this Territory : ^nd. provided further, That If any person 
offering to vote shall bo challenged and required to take an 
oath or affirmation, to be administered by one of the judges 
of the election, that he will sustain the provisions of the 
above recited acts of Congress, and of the act entitled 'An 
act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas,' 
approved May 30, 1854, and shall refuse to take such oath 
or affirmation, the vote of such person shall be rejected. 

" Sec. 12. Every person possessing the qualification of a 
voter, as hereinbefore prescribed, and who shall have re- 
sided in this Territory thirty days prior to the election at 
which he may offer himself as a candidate, shall be eligible 
as a delegate to the House of Representatives of the United 
States, to either branch of the Legislative Assembly, and 
to all other offices in this Territory, not otherwise especially 
provided for : Provided, however. That each member of the 
Legislative Assembly, and every officer elected or appointed 
to office under the laws of this Territory, shall, in addition to 
the oath or affirmation specially provided to be taken by 
such officer, take an oath or affirmation to support the Con- 
stitution of the United States, the provisions of an act en- 
titled ' An act respecting fugitives from justice and persona 
escaping from tlie service of their masters,' approved Feb- 
ruary 12, 1853, and of an act to amend, and supplementary 
to, said last mentioned act, approved September 18, 1850; 
and of an act entitled ' An act to organize the Territories 
of Nebraska and Kansas,' approved May 30, 1854." 

I denounce this as an unjust and cruel law against 
one section of the Union, and an insult to honor- 
able men who differ totally with me on great ques- 
tions of politics, and yet are as honest as I am, or 
any man on this floor. What right have you to 
put a new test for office or for the enjoyment of 
the right of suffrage into the law, and to demand 
of them that they shall swear to support that 
fugitive slave act ? You have the right to punish 
them if they refuse obedience to it, but you caa 
go no further. I am one of those who believe 
the fugitive slave law to be constitutional, and I 
am ready to support it. I should never question 
it; I should sustain it; but, sir, I know, and you 
all know, that there are men who are as warmly 
attached to your country as you or your own 
brothers can be, as faithful and true to their alle- 
giance as any men in the Union , who never could 
be prevailed upon, when asked to consent to such 
a test as that as a qualification for an officer, or 
a voter, to take the oath. This injustice is deeply 
felt throughout the North, and nothing short of 
its unqualified repeal can ever restore fraternal 
concord to this people. 

I hold this injustice to be unexampled. I trust 
the honorable gentleman from Illinois will fully 
agree with me in this, for I think his own bill, 
providing for the qualifications of voters when 
Kansas shall come into the Union as a State; 
utterly repudiates the whole idea that they shall 
be sworn to support the fugitive slave law. If 
the bill of the Committee on Territories be ex- 
amined, I think it will be found that it proposes 
to introduce Kansas into the Union as a State, 
requires of no citizen of the United States to 
swear to support the fugitive slave law, or any 
other act of Congress. Sir, it is a thing unheard 
of in the history of the country, that in the intro- 
duction of a Territory into the Union as a State, 
or in the formation of a territorial government, 
you should require men in the Territory to swear 
to support your acts of Congress. You have a 
right to demand of them that they shall swear to 
support the great paramount law of the land — the 
Constitution of the United States. The attempt 



8 



to go further is most dangerous as a precedent. 
It may happen, if you sustain such a principle 
as that, after full and calm deliberation, that in the 
future history of tliis country, some faction 
stronger than any other may demand, as a test 
for voting in the Territories, and in the States at 
last, to swear to support some fiworite law of 
theirs that may retain them and the tyrants who 
control them in power forever. This legislation 
is hostile to all the principles of the Kansas and 
Nebraska act itself; I hold that law now in my 
hand; I will read the section which makes pro- 
vision in regard to the subject of voting. It is the 
fifth section of the Kansas and Nebraska act: 

" Sec. r>. Jind. be it further enacted. That every free white 
male inhabitant, above the age of twenty-one years, who 
shall be an actual resident of said Territory, and shall pos- 
sess the (jualifications hereinafter prescribed, shall be en- 
titled to vote at the first election, and shall be eligible to 
any office within the Territory; but the qualifications of 
voters, and of holding office, at all subsequent elections, 
shall be such as shall be prescribed by the Legislative As- 
sembly : Provided," 

said the careful draughtsman of that act, 

" That the right of suffrage, and of holding office, shall be 
exercised only by citizens of the United States, and those 
who shall have declared on oath their intention to become 
tiich, and shall have taken an oath to support the Constitu- 
tion of the United States and the provisions of this act : And 
pro vidcdf art her, Tha.lno officer, soldier, seaman, or marine, 
or other person in the Army or Navy of the United States, 
or attached to troops in the service of the United States, 
shall be allowed to vote or hold office in said Territory, by 
reason of being on service therein." 

He demanded of no citizen of the United States 
to swear to support even the Constitution of the 
United States, or the provisions of this very act. 
Nothing of that sort was dictated by him. The 
whole idea grew up in Kansas among the heated 
partisans there. But, sir, I hold it to be wrong in 
principle and fatal in practice. 1 trust in God we 
shall have the justice to repeal it, and to suffer 
every resident citizen in the Territory to come 
up, and, on the true principles contained in the 
Kansas-Nebraska act, to vote. 

Then, again, there is another statute in force 
in the Territory to which I respectfully invite the 
attention of the Senate; I will not read it, as it 
has been read by other gentlemen. It is an act 
which, in the strongest terms, denies to any man 
residing in the Territory of Kansas the right to 
write, or to print, or speak, or in any way publish 
or declare that he denies the legality of the ex- 
istence of slavery in the Territories; and it pun- 
ishes any man who makes a declaration of that 
description, with penitentiary and hard labor for 
not less than two years. It does not provide how 
many more years than two the man shall be in 
the penitentiary at hard labor, but not less than 
two years. He who entertains an honest opinion 
on a question of law, whether or not slavery 
rightfully exists in Kansas, if he has happened to 
get wrong, must go intct the penitentiary and stay 
there not less than two years, at hard labor. Sir, 
to announce the fact is to show the disgraceful 
character of the act. Not a man, here or any- 
where else, can be found to stand up and defend 
Buch an enactment. It would send hundreds of 
able jurists and even southern slaveholders to 
the penitentiary, who deny the right of Congress 



to legislate on the subject of slavery, and of 
course deny its right to delegate a power which 
Congress cannot exercise to a Territorial Legis- 
lature, while the same men also believe that sla- 
very is a creature of the municipal law, and can- 
not exist anywhere, propiio vigore, or merely by 
virtue of the provisions of the Constitution. 

I acknowledge the propriety of the existing law 
of Kansas, which is to protect the slaveholder 
there in the enjoyment of his property. There 
are there, at this time, as some say, more than a 
thousand slaves; others say there are really very 
few there. But sgme men have gone there upon 
the faith of the laws as they found them existing 
on the public statute-book, published by the au- 
thority of the United States; and to pass a law 
now to sweep away all the clauses which protect 
them in the enjoyment of their slave property 
would be a tyranny scarcely less than that which 
I have been attempting to expose, and which is 
to be found in the laws against the opposite sec- 
tion of the Union. 

I know very well that on this point I shall be 
in opposition to northern gentlemen. I know 
very well what they contend for. I know they 
contend that they have proved or will prove that 
the people of Missouri, and not the people of 
Kansas, elected many members of the Legislature 
of Kansas. But, sir, I appeal ..to their sense of 
justice, and I ask them now, if you had a Free- 
Soil or aTree-State majority in the Legislature 
of Kansas, could you find it in your hearts to 
sacrifice the property of southern gentlemen who, 
in good faith, have carried their slaves into that 
Territory, and set them all free? I say it with 
perfect respect, that I think honorable, generous, 
high-minded men, from the northern country, 
could not consent to divest the sacred rights of 
property which are protected by these laws. If 
the people of the Territory shall elect, under the 
provisions of the bill 1 am about to offer, Free- 
State men, slavery in the Territory will not exist 
after the present year. Then, in the spirit of 
conciliation, and in the desire to do perfect justice, 
I ask them to consent to let the laws which have 
introduced slavery — if you please to call them 
such, or which protect slavery there for the pres- 
ent — remain on the statute-book, after the repeal 
of those odious laws to which I have called your 
attention, and all other laws which affect the 
liberty of speech and the liberty of the press, or 
that tend to violate any of the great fundamental 
principles of the Kansas and Nebraska law. 
After restoring perfect equality between the 
northern and southern men in the Territory — as 
the bill I offer effectually does — I appeal to the 
generosity and the justice of gentlemen from the 
North to suffer these laws to stand unrepealed on 
the statute-book, till the question is decided by 
a fair election of a Legislative Assembly, for 
which fair election the bill makes ample pro- 
vision. 

Mr. President, there is another measure, indis- 
pensable to a fair election, provided in the bill 
which I have prepared. It proposes to take a 
new census of the Territory. It authorizes the 
Secretary of State, who has always been at the 
head of the census department of this Govern- 



9 



ment, to appoint commissioners to go into the 
Territory and take a faithful census of every elec- 
tion district there, and of the whole Territory. It 
then directs that he shall apportion representa- 
tion in the Legislature, according to the popula- 
tion in the Territory, as nearly as may be. It 
directs that a faithful return of the census and of 
the apportionment shall be made, and it further 
directs that these commissioners shall appoint 
proper and faithful judges of the elections. It 
provides suitable penalties against every man 
who attempts to overawe or intimidate any voter 
about to vote in the Territory, and inflicts severe 
penalties on those, wherever they may be found, 
who shall dare attempt to obstruct the freemen of 
the Territory when about to exercise the right of 
suffrage. It places men from all sections precisely 
on the same basis; and because of its perfect 
justice, its strict maintenance of equality be- 
tween men from all parts of the country, it makes 
its appeal to you, Senators, this day, for your 
suffrages to pass it. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The hour 
appointed for the consideration of the special 
order has arrived. 

Mr. CLAYTON. 1 shall consume but httle 
more of your time. A few moments more and I 
ehall yield the floor. 

A reference to the bill will show that provision 
is made for other abuses of the legislative power 
in Kansas, to which I have no time now to refer. 

Mr. President, I am very well aware that this 
measure, concocted during a period of severe per- 
sonal suffering and sickness, may be a very im- 
perfect one. I have only to say to gentlemen , who 
are much more capable of framing such a bill than 
I can pretend to be, that it is an honest effort to 
restore peace and concord, and to prevent those 
disastrous consequences of unjust and oppressive 
legislation which are threatening the country. 

I have to ask now of every Senator to assist me 
in doing something to allay the storm which is 
howling all around us. Do not tell me that all 
this is merely a political tempest. I know well 
how much of it is political. I am no novice in 
the world of politics. I know well how political 
men will seek to create and to magnify panics in 
the country; but I know that the measures to 
which I have referred, and which I propose to 
repeal, have touched the hearts of the people, and 
excited the honest indignation of men who are not 
mere politicians, but who will be driven to become 
such if you remain inert and inactive until an- 
other session of Congress. 

I implore every Senator to assist me in this 
labor to restore fraternal feeling among our coun- 
trymen. Let no man imagine that I am vain 
enough to desire that the bill shall pass precisely 
as I have drawn it. No, sir, I shall be most happy 
to receive the advice and the aid of abler men. I 
trust I shall have it; and in the language of the 
Roman poet, let me say in conclusion, by way 
of appeal to each individual Senator: 

" Si quid novisti rectius istis 
Candidas imperii; si non, his utere mecum." 

I now ask the consent of the Senate to intro- 
duce the bill. 



A bill supplementary to an Act to organize the 
Territories of Nebraska and Kansas. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States of .America in Con- 
gress assembled, That whereas it is declared , by the 
thirty-second section of the act to organize the 
Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, approved 
May thirty, eighteen hundred and fifty-fodr, to 
be the "true intent and meaning of that act not 
to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, 
nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the 
people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate 
their domestic institutions in theirown way, sub- 
ject only to the Constitution of the United States: 
Provided, That nothing therein contained shall be 
construed to revive or put in force any law or 
regulation which may have existed prior to the 
sixlh of March, eighteen hundred and twenty, 
either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or 
abolishing slavery:" 

Now, therefore, it shall be the duty of the Sec- 
retary of State, and he is hereby required, imme- 
diately after the passage of this act, to cause a cor- 
rect census of the inhabitants residing in the Ter- 
ritory of Kansas, and of each subdivision thereof, 
known as an election district, to be carefully and 
truthfully made, for which purpose said Secretary 
shall appoint four commissioners, well qualified 
and judicious persons, being established settlers 
and permanent residents of said Territory, whose 
duty it shall be, under such regulations as the 
Secretary shall provide, to make a faithful and 
impartial enumeration of all the inhabitants being 
residents of the said Territory, and each of the 
said districts in said Territory, and to make true 
returns thereof without unreasonable delay; one 
of the said returns to be made to the oflice of the 
Secretary of State of the United States, and one 
to the office of the Governor of Kansas; and also 
to make a true return of the resident inhabitants 
of each of said elective districts to some impar- 
tial and suitable person residing in such district, 
to be appointed by them to receive and preserve 
the same. 

And the commissioners so appointed by the 
said Secretary shall, before entering on the duties 
of their ofiices, take an oath or aflirmation impar- 
tially and faithfully to perform all the duties en- 
joined upon them by this act; which oath or 
affirmation shall be administered to them, sev- 
erally, by and before any person appointed for 
that purpose by said Secretary, or by and before 
any judge of the United States, who shall trans- 
mit a certificate of each such oath or aflirmation 
to the oflice of Secretary of State and the oflice 
of the Governor of Kansas, to be there kept and 
recorded; and for a violation of such oath or 
aflirmation each of said afliants shall be liable to 
all the pains and penalties of willful and corrupt 
perjury. 

Sec. 2. ^nd be it further enacted. That imme- 
diately after the returns of the said census shall 
be so made, the said Secretary of State shall 
cause a sufficient number of copies thereof to be 
published and distributed in all the election dis'- 
tricts of said Territory of Kansas, together with 
an apportionment, which he shall make of the 



10 



representation for the Legislative Assembly. And 
in making such apportionment the representation 
of members of the Council and members of the 
House of Representatives shall be made, as nearly 
as may be, according to population, as ascer- 
tained by the census. The ratio of representa- 
tion, or number of constituents necessary for a 
representative, shall be one thousand, and for a 
member of the council two thousand, and for 
any fraction larger than half the ratio required in 
any representative or council district, as ascer- 
tained by the said. Secretary of State, an election 
district shall be entitled to an additional repre- 
sentative or member of the council, as the case 
may be. And the said apportionment, so made, 
shall be final and conclusive until another census 
of said Territory shall be taken by direction of 
the Legislative Assembly hereinafter directed to 
be elected. 

Sec. 3. Jlnd be it further enacted, That imme- 
diately after the publication of the said apportion- 
ment of representation , as aforesaid , the Governor 
of the said Territory shall issue his proclamation, 
directingan election of members of the said Legis- 
lative Assembly to be held within not less than 
fifty nor more than sixty days after the date of 
said proclamation; specifying therein the number 
of members of the Council, and the number of 
members of the House of Rejiresentatives, to 
which each representative and council district is 
entitled; and the day and place when and where 
the election shall be held; which said proclama- 
tion the said Governor shall cause to be faithfully 
published and distributed throughout the said 
Territory, so that all the inhabitants thereof may 
have full means of knowledge of the time and 
place of said elections. The day of said elections 
shall be the same throughout the said Territory, 
and the place of such elections shall be the most 
suitable and convenient for the electors; and it 
shall be competent for the aforementioned com- 
missioners, or a majority of them, to change the 
place of any election in any district or districts, 
if they shall deem it proper to do so for the pur- 
pose of more effectually carrying out the great 
principle contained in the preamble to this act. 

Sec. 4. Jlnd be it further enacted, That no law 
shall be in force in the said Territory violating or 
tending to the violation of the great princi])le as- 
serted in the preamble to this act, or whereby the 
people of said Territory shall be prohibited from 
free and full discussion of their own domestic in- 
stitutions and interests, or whereby said people 
shall be for affirming or denying the existence or 
propriety of admitting or prohibiting slavery in 
said Territory, visited or threatened with any 
penalty or punishment; nor slutU any test oath be 
required as a qualification for any civil office or 
public trust, nor any oath to support any act of 
Congress or other legislative act be required of 
any attorney at law, solicitor, delegate or member 
of the Legislative Assembly, or any other officer 
under the laws of Kansas, or of any voter at any 
election in the said Territory; trial by jury shall 
be as at common law, and no challenge or objec- 
tion to a juror shall avail which is not authorized 
by the rules of common law, any statute to the 
contrary notwithstanding. 



Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That no per- 
son shall be a legal voter at any election in the 
said Territory of Kansas, who. shall not have 
been a bona fide resident of the said Territory 
three months before the day of said election, and 
for one month a bona fide resident of the election 
district in which he shall offer to vote. No oath 
to support the fugitive slave law, or any other 
act of Congress, or'of the Legislative Assembly, 
shall be ever hereafter required of any voter as a 
qualification for any office or place of trust in the 
Territory; nor shall the prepayment of any tax 
be required of him as such a qualification; nor 
shall any Indian, not recognized as a citizen by 
treaty, be permitted to vote; No person offering to 
vote shall be presumed entitled to vote. And any 
person offering to vote at said elections without 
the qualifications required by this act, shall forfeit 
and pay the sum of fifty dollars therefor, to be 
recovered by action of debt, or on the case, before 
any court or justice of the peace in the said Ter- 
ritory. 

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That if any 
citizen of any State or States of the United States, 
or other person, shall attempt, by any means, to 
overawe or intimidate any elector in any of the 
said election districts, and thereby to prevent him 
from exercising the rights of a free and independ- 
ent elector, agreeable to the spirit of the pream- 
ble to this act, or shall in any manner unlawfully 
prevent a qualified voter from exercising such 
right, each and every person so offending shall 
forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars, 
to be recovered by any person who will sue for 
the same in an action of debt, or on the case, in 
any district court of the United States in or for 
any district where swch offender may be arrested. 

Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That the com- 
missioners hereinbefore directed to be appointed 
by the Secretary of State, for the purpose of 
taking a census as aforesaid, shall, in addition to 
the other duties enjoined on them by this act, ap- 
point three persons for each place of voting as offi- 
cers and judges of election, who shall superintend 
the same at each place of voting, and shall receive 
the votes, and make lists of voters, and returns 
thereof, agreeable to the existing acts of the 
Legislative Assembly of Kansas. And each of 
them shall, before he enters upon the duties of 
his office as judge of any such election, take an 
oath or affirmation to support the Constitution 
of the United States, and to perform his duties 
with fidelity. In case of the absence or inability 
of either of the persons so appointed to conduct 
the said election, the other judge or judges shall 
have the power to fill the vacancy or vacancies. 

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That the 
Council and House of Representatives of the Ter- 
ritory of Kansas, so elected as aforesaid, shall 
assemble at the town of Topeka, in the Territory, 
for the transaction of business, on the third Tues- 
day of the month next succeeding that in which 
they shall have been elected. And the said Legis- 
lative Assembly may adjourn to any other place 
which to them shall appear most suitable. The 
first session of the Legislative Assembly, so 
elected, may continue for a period not exceeding 
sixty days. Until the election provided for in 



11 



this act, no election for members of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly, or of Delegates for said Territory 
in the House of Representatives of the United 
States, shall be held in said Territory; but an elec- 
tion of said Delegate shall be held at the time of 
the election of the Legislative Assembly. The 
power of any former Legislative Assembly shall 
cease upon the passage of this act. 

Sec. 9. ^tid be it further enacted, That when- 
ever it shall appear, by a census to be taken 
under the direction of the Governor, by the 
authority of the Legislature, that there shall be 
a Federal population of ninety-three thousand 
four hundred and twenty (that being the number 
required by the present ratio of representation 
for a Representative in Congress) within the 
limits hereinafter described, in the Territory of 
Kansas, the Legislature of said Territory shall 
be, and is hereby, authorized to provide by law 
for the election of delegates by the people of said 
Territory, to assemble in convention and form 
a constitution and State government, prepara- 
tory to their admission into the Union on an 
equal footing with the original States in all |espects 
whatever, by the name of the State of Kansas, 
with the following boundaries, to wit: beginning 
on the western boundary of the State of Missouri, 
where the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude 
crosses the same; thence west on said parallel, 
to the one hundred and third meridian of longi- 
tude; thence north on said meridian, to the fortieth 
parallel of latitude; thence east on said parallel 
of latitude, to the western boundary of the State 
of Missouri; thence southward with said bound- 
ary, to the place of beginning. 

Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That the 
said convention shall be composed of delegates 
from each representative district within the limits 
of the proposed State, and that each district shall 
elect double the number of delegates to which it 
may be entitled to representatives in the Terri- 
torial Legislature; and that, at the said election 
of delegates, all white male inhabitants, who shall 
have arrived at the age of twenty-one years and 
shall have been actual residents in the Territory 
for the period of six months, and in the district 
for the period of three months, next preceding 
the day of election, and who shall possess the 
other qualifications required by the organic act of 
the Territory at the first election to be held under 
the same, shall be entitled to vote, and that none 
others shall be permitted to vote at said election. 

Sec. 1L »^nd be it further enacted. That the fol- 
lowing propositions be, and the same are hereby, 
offered to the said convention of the people of 
Kansas, when formed, for their free acceptance 
or rejection; which, if accepted by the convention 
and ratified by the people at the election for the 
adoption of the constitution, shall be obligatory 



on the United States and upon the said State of 
Kansas, to wit: 

First. That sections numbered sixteen and 
thirty-six in every township of public lands in 
said State, and where either of said sections, or 
any part thereof, has been sold, or otherwise 
been disposed of, other lands, equivalent thereto, 
and as contiguous as may be, shall be granted in 
said State for the use of schools. 

Second. That seventy-two sections of land 
shall be set apart and reserved for the use and 
support of a State university, to be selected by 
the Governor of said State, subject to the ap- 
proval of the Commissioner of the General Land 
Office, and to be appropriated and applied in such 
manner as the Legislature of said State may pre- 
scribe for the purpose aforesaid, but for no other 
purpose. 

Third. That ten entire sections of land, to be 
selected by the Governor of said State, in legal 
subdivisions, shall be granted to said State for the 
purpose of completing the public buildings, or for 
the erection of others at the seat of Government, 
under the direction of the Legislature thereof. 

Fourth. That all salt springs within said State, 
not exceeding twelve in number, with six sections 
of land adjoining, or as contiguous to as may be 
to each, shall be granted to said State for its use; 
the same to be selected by the Governor thereof, 
within one year after the adijiission of said State; 
and, when so selected, to be used or disposed of 
on such terms, conditions, and regulations, as the 
Legislature shrfll direct: Provided, That no salt 
spring or land, the right whereof is now vested 
in any individual or individuals, or which may- 
be hereafter confirmed or adjudged to any indi- 
vidual or individuals, shall, by this article, be 
granted to said State. 

Fifth. That five per cent, of the net proceeds 
of sales of all public lands lying within said State, 
which shall be sold by Congress after the admis- 
sion of said State into the Union, after deducting 
all the expenses incident to the same, shall be 
paid to said State for the purpose of making 
public roads and internal improvements, as the 
Legislature shall direct: Provided, The foregoing 
propositions herein offered are on the condition 
that the said convention which shall form the 
constitution of said State shall provide, by a 
clause in said constitution, or an ordinance, irrev- 
ocable without the consent of the United States, 
that said State shall never interfere with the pri- 
mary disposal of the soil within the same by the 
United States, or with any regulations Congress 
may find necessary for securing the title in said 
soil to bona fide purchasers thereof, and that no 
tax shall be imposed on lands belonging to the 
United States, and that in no case shall non-res- 
ident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



016 085 239 2 



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